Rate My Professor Abigail Lewis

Abigail Lewis is a Senior Lecturer (Clinical Education) in the School of Medical and Health Sciences at Edith Cowan University, based in the University Department of Rural Health South West in Bunbury, Western Australia. Born in rural UK, she holds Scottish ancestry and migrated to Noongar country in Western Australia in 1996, where she trained and worked as a speech pathologist specializing in children with disabilities, particularly autism spectrum disorders. She transitioned to academia in 2009 as Clinical Coordinator for placements in ECU’s Bachelor of Speech Pathology program, managing work-integrated learning for 14 years. Her qualifications include a Doctor of Philosophy from Curtin University (2026), Graduate Certificate of Higher Education from Edith Cowan University (2012), Master of Health Science (Developmental Disability) from the University of Sydney (2011), and Bachelor of Medical Science (Speech) from England (1989). In her current role, she supports allied health and nursing students on rural placements, develops placement preparation curricula including online modules and fortnightly Harvest tutorials, and conducts reflective supervision workshops for clinical educators and new graduate support groups.

Lewis’s research centers on professional identity formation in speech pathology students and new graduates, clinical education to enhance placement readiness through simulation and virtual reality, reflective practice and supervision, and quality rural work-integrated learning. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA). Key publications include "Professional Identity Formation in Allied Health: A Systematic Review with Narrative Synthesis" (Lewis, Jamieson, & Smith, 2023, Teaching and Learning in Medicine), "Perceived professional identity formation and influencing characteristics among speech pathology students" (Lewis, Jackson, & Bennett, 2025, Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability), "Utilisation of simulation-based learning to decrease student anxiety and increase readiness for clinical placements for speech-language pathology students" (Petrich et al., 2024, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology), "Working with children with autism: an interprofessional simulation-based tutorial for speech pathology and occupational therapy students" (Lewis, Rudd, & Mills, 2018, Journal of Interprofessional Care), and "Decolonizing Speech-Language Pathology practice in acquired neurogenic disorders" (Penn et al., 2017, Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups). Her work contributes to interprofessional education, student wellness, and ePortfolio implementation in speech pathology.